Mrs. B is about to literally explode with joy! Literally? Really? That would be a mess. The truth is Mrs. B is figuratively (symbolically) about to explode with joy, or just plain "about to ...
LEAKER-IN-CHIEF The United States Attorney-General has a dilemma. Last week, Jeff Sessions vowed that the Justice Department would vigorously pursue leakers of information the government determined was classified a vital to national security. He ...
McENANY?S NEW ROLE Kayleigh McEnany is extending her brand. Last week, she was a second-line surrogate for the Trump Administration on CNN behind inadvertent comic relief Jeffrey Lord. She was actually the smarter one ...
"Fewer" refers to the number of something and is used with plural nouns. Heres a headline example: 2017 Sees Fewer Speeding Tickets In High Enforcement "Less" refers to degree or amount and is ...
FOXS BOLLING SUSPENDED The bad-news-coming-out-of-Fox-News weekly streak continues. No sooner does the endlessly-moralizing, relentlessly misogynistic Eric Bolling launch ?Fox News Specialists? than he is suspended from the program for the foreseeable future. Even worse, ...
Home Page Issue # 4,205 Friday, August 4, 2017 Comment SINCLAIR STOCK DIVE Remember yesterday when we told you about the possible partnership between Fox and ION Television that could result in Fox ...
SINCLAIR: "FEWER NEWSROOMS" We hope every employee of every Sinclair (and Tribune) station is aware of the words coming from Sinclair CEO Christopher Ripley. If you don?t think Sinclair has plans and dreams that ...
"Hanged" is the word to use when youre talking about suicides or executions. So lets correct this headline: Man killed woman and grandson, hung himself The corrected headline is: ~ Man killed woman and ...
LAWSUIT CLAIMS FOX FAKED NEWS Lately, the week wouldn?t be complete without a lawsuit being filed against Fox News. But this one is a whopper. A lawsuit filed in federal court claims a Fox ...
BUH-BYE, MOOCH Well that was ten days that shook the White House. There is a certain poetry to the idea that Anthony Scaramucci sowed the seeds of his own destruction. After all, his deep ...
Mrs. B knows you have important places to go and important people to see, but please take a minute to check your pronunciation of these words. Candidate: Pronounce it CAN-di-date or CAN-di-dit. Either one ...
THE DEAL IS DONE Just out within the hour: Discovery Communications, Inc. and Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement for Discovery to acquire Scripps in a cash-and-stock ...
THE MOOCH: R-RATED (REALLY!) On Wednesday evening, White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, the man in charge of messaging for this administration, called up New Yorker reporter Ryan Lizza to try and find out who ...
SCRIPPS REJECTS VIACOM And now it is apparently just down to Discovery Channels as a suitor. Viacom tried mightily to get back in the game of wooing Scripps Networks Interactive. Its latest, and evidently ...
Do you remember what an irregular verb is? That means it doesnt form its past tense by adding -ed. "Shake" is an irregular verb. The past tense is "shook," as in: ~One of our ...
SINCLAIR STAYING LOCAL So much for all the back fence gossip and watercooler speculation about Sinclair joining the cable news wars. ?After we acquired Allbritton [Communications] in 2014, we looked hard at launching a ...
A "PRESIDENTIAL" JAMBOREE What does it say when the most prominent blogger for one of the broadcast industrys most fervent defenders of its business model takes time out from writing about FCC deregulation, industry ...
It was in July of 1965 that, under the leadership of President Johnson, Congress created Medicare under Title XVIII of the Social Security Act. The term Social Security is easy to get sloppy with. ...
DC LEGEND JIM VANCE 1942-2017 WRC NEWS 4 anchor Jim Vance revealed to colleagues and viewers in May that he was battling cancer. On Saturday, he died after a brief battle. ?We are heartbroken ...
Home Page Issue # 4,195 Friday, July 21, 2017 Comment ?A CONFLICT-FREE LIFE? For once, it wasnt about the chaos in Washington This time is was about a celebrity gone bad. A former sports ...
TV NEWS FUTURE? IN A SNAP In case you missed it, another signpost showing the transformation of delivering electronic news popped up yesterday with the debut of ?Stay Tuned?. It is produced by NBC ...
"Whos" is a contraction of the pronoun "who" and the verb "is," as in: ~Whos going to do the headlines from the newsroom? ~Weve been wondering whos the next guest. "Whose," on the other ...
SINCLAIR LASHES OUT AT CRITICS The skin is getting a little thin at Sinclair Broadcasting headquarters outside of Baltimore, MD. Evidently all of the attention Sinclair has been getting due to 1) It?s imminent ...
KELLY RATING SLIDE CONTINUES Even as NBC?s new Megyn Kelly 9 AM daily hour picks up staffers, and approaches its September 25 start date, the numbers on her Sunday prime-time offering have to be ...
Surplusage. Mrs. B gets all tingly-toed saying that word. Its one newswriting coach Merv Block introduced to her. Surplusage means excess, more than needed. "Sworn affidavit" is an example of surplusage. An affidavit is ...
SINCLAIR-TRIB LAWSUIT FILED Well someone?s trying. Sean McIntire, a shareholder in Tribune Media, has filed a federal lawsuit opposing Trib?s acquisition by Sinclair Broadcasting and hopes to achieve class action status. McIntire accuses Tribune ...
WGCL OPENS DOOR TO DOERR Meredith?s WGCL in Atlanta welcomes its seventh news director in 10 years, give or take. Steve Doerr, who?s been a news director in Philadelphia, Cleveland, Washington, DC, Columbus, Ohio ...
ND MUSICAL CHAIRS BEGINS Well we knew it was too quiet out there and we?d soon be hearing about more news director moves. We already had one major move this week with Margaret Cronan?s ...
If you feel badly, that means your sense of touch isnt working so well. You would have a hard time learning to read braille. "Badly" is an adverb. Its used with an action verb. ...
?F & FS? REDFACED RETRACTION "Fox & Friends" the president?s go-to morning show had to issue a correction ? no make that a retraction ? of a story it ran Monday and the president ...
BIBB-JORDAN BOTH CALL IT QUITS More than 60 years of combined Cleveland television news history will close out when two local broadcasting legends walk out the doors at Scripps? WEWS. Leon Bibb and ...
If Mrs. B hadnt checked under the hood, she might have driven off with the kitten nestled on the engine. See how that sentence was constructed? Heres another. ~If Norm hadnt checked inside the ...
BIG PAYDAY AWAITS TRIB EXECS. Pity the poor Tribune execs who will be displaced when (c?mon, it never was ?if?, John Oliver notwithstanding) Sinclair takes over and starts mandating Boris Epshteyn commentaries to grown-up ...
FOX BUSINESS HOST SUSPENDED Charles Payne hosts the program ?Making Money? on Fox Business Channel. But not for the foreseeable future. Right now the folks making money off Payne will be lawyers ? his ...
WHOA! IF TRUE Verizon buying Disney? There?s a spit-take-inducing thought. No sooner had Verizon swallowed up Yahoo than rumors began swirling about the next target for the communications giant. ?It feels like Verizon ...
Mrs. B wants to go over a common usage mistake, or maybe its just a spelling issue. One of the meanings of lose is to fail to win. Its pronounced LOOZ. ~With that lead-in, ...
HOROWITZ DUMPED AT FOX SPORTS If it?s sexual harassment claims and forced exits, it must be Fox?or a unit thereof. This time it?s Fox Sports and the highly self-regarding Jamie Horowitz. "I ...
Mrs. B begins todays lesson with a pronunciation quiz. Please read the following aloud: ~The burglars found the cache, grabbed the jewelry, and escaped. Police say the homeowners made themselves vulnerable by leaving ...
SCHOOLYARD DISTRACTIONS If you set the Wayback Machine for last Monday, you will remember that CNN?s week started off badly ?even worse than it ended the week before when the network pulled a web-only ...
MORE BALLISTIC BEHAVIOR Maybe it was the joke about the tiny hands that set him off. We watch just enough ?Morning Joe? to know that a daily staple since at least January 20th has ...
Home Page Issue # 4,180 Thursday, June 29, 2017 Comment ?PINK SLIME? SETTLEMENT REACHED Here we thought we?d be spending the summer providing periodic updates and the occasional snarky reference to Elk Point, South ...
Just one letter can make such a difference in the meaning of a word. Mrs. B wants you to look at some nouns today. A "miner" works in a mine. A "minor" is younger ...
LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS? Is this the future of local television news? Anne Imanuel is the local news anchor in Salisbury, Maryland. And Meridian, Mississippi. And Hattiesburg. And Gainesville, Florida. She anchors newscasts for ...
OBJECTIVE JOURNALISM OBSOLETE? NYU journalism professor Mitchell Stephens has come up with a provocative piece in Politico titled ?Goodbye Nonpartisan Journalism and Good Riddance?. And if you think the title is provocative, read ...
"None is" used to be standard. Most grammar gurus now say that "none" can be either singular or plural, depending on the meaning you intend. If youre pointing out, emphatically, "not a single one," ...
"THE NOW" IS HISTORY IN INDY The suits giveth and the suits taketh away. Scripps WRTV yanked its 4PM newscast "The Now" after Friday?s airing, a little more than two years after launching ...
HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HEAR THIS? OTT. Other Than Television? One True Thing? Over The Top? Isn?t jargon fun? In this case, we?re going with ?Over The Top?, this case being yet another ...
CALL IT THE LIMBAUGH DEFENSE Get your ?pink slime? trial update right here! Day 13 in Elk Point, South Dakota. ABC News employs the "Rush Limbaugh defense". The Beef Products Incorporated corporate administrator, Rich ...
A Chattanooga anchor writes: Were having a discussion in our newsroom about causes of death. Which of the following is correct? (1) He died from two gunshot wounds to the head. (2) He died ...
Home Page Issue # 4,174 Wednesday, June 21, 2017 Comment SPICERS SWAN SONG? Sean Spicer held a rare press briefing with cameras present and everything yesterday. This came after reporter complaints about the lack ...
RATINGS BUST The numbers are in and they aren?t pretty. ?Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly?, featuring 17 minutes with sweaty performance artist Alex Jones, managed an anemic audience of 3.5 million people. After all ...
If youre not sure when to use "into" and "in to," then this lesson is for you. "Into" can indicate direction or motion. ~Put the camera into the right side of the cabinet. "Into" ...
HIGH MARKS FOR KELLY If you hadn?t heard of performance artist Alex Jones before last week, you would had to been on a desert island to not be aware of him by at least ...
JONES ?GOTCHA?. KELLY REVAMPS It?s going down to the wire for the much-hyped, much-maligned, still-unseen faceoff between Megyn Kelly and performance artist Alex Jones. PAGE SIX tells us that Kelly and NBC News brass ...
NETWORKS SCRAMBLE. AGAIN As we posted yesterday?s NewsBlues, every network and cable news outlet was focused on yet another mass shooting, this time at an early morning baseball practice in an Alexandria Virginia public ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." When to use foot and feet … thats the quandary of an Indianapolis sportscaster. And that makes a worthy subject for Mrs. Bs ...
UPDATE: CONGRESSMAN SHOT As we file this morning, you will notice that cable news is covering a shooting incident at a baseball field in Virginia. Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise (R) and several of his ...
CHASE NOT BANKING ON KELLY Some folks are already composing obituaries for Megyn Kelly?s career following the first two outings of ?Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly?, both of which came in a distant ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Homonyms are words that have the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings. Bear is one of them. The verb ...
HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED A look back at how last Thursdays Comey hearing can give us some clues as to how pejorative terms like "fake news" and "alternative facts" gain currency with the public. ...
THE CIRCUS HAS LEFT TOWN At times riveting, at times confusing, at times infuriating. Always compelling. Thats how we would describe yesterdays appearance by former FBI Director James Comey before the Senate Intelligence Committee. ...
A HISTORIC DAY UNFOLDS Today is the day. At 10 this morning, former FBI Director James Comey will sit down in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee to answer questions about the handling of ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Former and formal dont sound that much alike, but their -ly versions do. Mrs. B wants to be sure you know the difference. ...
Home Page Issue # 4,164 Wednesday, June 7, 2017 Comment Ready to be a Target? And a top issue to be debated in the 2018 midterms will be? Jobs? Healthcare? Infrastructure? Terrorism? Well ...
Home Page Issue # 4,163 Tuesday, June 6, 2017 Comment ?Pink Slime? Trial Opens Out in a courtroom in tiny Elk Point, South Dakota, what could end up being the biggest defamation trial ...
You can usually trust your twinges to let you know something is amiss. If youre going to use the word former for a person still living, yes, use it with a present tense verb ...
Home Page Issue # 4,162 Monday, June 5, 2017 Comment ?Sunday Night? is?.still Sunday night Lucy and Desi. Will and Grace. Rowan and Martin. Megyn and Vlad. Last night saw the breathlessly-anticipated debut ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." returns tomorrow. All elements of this web site are protected by U.S. Copyright, Title 17 of the United States Code. ...
?Hold on There,? Says Court When the FCC voted in April to restore the ?UHF discount rule?, which then cleared the way for Corporate TV to extend its already gigantic reach, it appeared ...
UPDATE:ODonnell Stays Put Stop the handwringing, people. MSNBCs Lawrence ODonnell is staying right where he is. He made the announcement himself: ?I will be sitting right here talking about the James Comey hearing and ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Masterly means being an expert or a master at something. Masterful, on the other hand, means being domineering and pushy. Mrs. B hears ...
Pelley Out at CBS Evening News That loud sound you heard overnight was the collective thump of jaws dropping as word of Scott Pelley?s impending exit from the ?CBS Evening News? spread. The ...
Mrs. B?s Grammar Yammer, a NewsBlues staple since the beginning, will continue, albeit twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Look for her tomorrow. Because tomorrow is Thursday.
Under New Management NewsBlues is Alive and Well! Long Live NewsBlues! And with that we bid farewell to the Surly Editor? as Mike James hangs up his keyboard (but surely not his attitude), and ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Lets look at a few words that are often mispronounced even by network anchors and reporters. The correct way to pronounce intravenous is ...
SIGNING OFF On a hot July evening in 1998, your Surly Editor? and Mrs. B (who were then known simply as Mike James and Mona Scott), were out for an evening stroll in Columbus, ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B was tempted to ride off into the sunset with the Surly Editor?, but racing just isnt her thing. Grammar is. She ...
BODY SLAMMED Greg Gianforte, the Republican candidate from Montana in a hotly contested race for an open seat in the U.S. House, was charged with misdemeanor assault after he body slammed and punched a ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." We hear it all the time: "theres a lot of." But sometimes it should be "therere a lot of." How do you know ...
FOX CONSPIRACY SHOWDOWN Fox News on Tuesday retracted a story linking the murder, last summer, of a Democratic National Committee staff member to the email hacks that aided President Trumps campaign, effectively quashing a ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." When Mrs. B heard this, her grammar radar activated and she sprang into action: Us reporters do all the heavy lifting. That "us" ...
IN THE FOX HOLE The year from hell is finally taking its toll at Fox News. For the first time in 17 years, Fox spent an entire week in third place in prime time ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Heres one for you that might come in handy. Actually two, thanks to this note to Mrs. B: What is the correct way ...
OMINOUS FAREWELL Roger Ailes, the founder of Fox News, who died last week from a brain injury after falling at his home, was celebrated with a patriotic funeral on Saturday at St. Edward Roman ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Look at this sentence from a CBS News story: That begs the question ? how much more does it cost to protect the ...
ACCIDENTAL DEATH Roger Ailes, the brilliant, profane, charming, intimidating, innovative founder of Fox News, who is credited with stripping the institution of television news of its credibility by politicizing news content, died in a ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." In this season of graduation, Mrs. B notes that the AP Stylebook recommends capitalizing academic degrees: Master of Science Master of Arts Bachelor ...
BREAKING NEWS Roger Ailes, who transformed cable news and then American politics by building Fox News into a ratings powerhouse, died Thursday. He was 77. The death was announced by his family and reported ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mrs. B hopes you wont leave out the "from" when graduating. For example: More people are turning toward a career in nursing with ...
NEWSBLUES LIVES!!! NewsBlues has a new owner. Rick Iler, the former news director at Scripps-owned KSHB-41-NBC in Kansas City (Market #33), Nexstars KARK-4-NBC in Little Rock (Market #57), Gannetts KCEN-6-NBC in Temple, TX (Market ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." The 70th annual Cannes Film Festival begins today in Cannes, in the South of France, and Mrs. B hopes youll pronounce it "can" ...
DEVOURED BY NEWS Donald Trump prefers an open Oval Office with a free flow of ideas and inputs from both official and unofficial channels. And he often does not differentiate between the two. Aides ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Lets get our terms right as we report on graduation speeches. The podium is the raised platform the speaker steps up onto. Think ...
TANGLED UP IN MUST-RUNS They are called "must-runs," and they arrive every day at television stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group… short video segments that are centrally produced by the company. Since November ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." When Mrs. B hears "Well have continuous coverage of this story," she cringes a bit. "Continuous" means uninterrupted. More accurate is: ~Well have ...
GRILLED DONALD NBCs Lester Holt is credited with relentlessly pressing President Donald Trump yesterday in a 31-minute face-to-face encounter at the White House that some have characterized as the best, most incisive interview of ...
MRS. Bs GRAMMAR YAMMER "A PBS mind in a Twitter world." Mothers Day is coming up Sunday and Fathers Day next month. Mrs. B wants you to notice the possessive of these two holidays ...
